Today, with many landlines being shut down or converted to DSL dry runs, it's nearly impossible in a lot of areas to connect to old BBSes that are still around like the Back To The Future BBS.
So, I had an idea. Obihai sells boxes like the Obi200 that you can link up to a google voice account. The issue with most VOIP services is their use of lossy encoding, and while I can't exactly speak for Google Voice, Obihai supposedly states that their Obi200 boxes support faxing, which is as we all know, just a modem.
So what about results. Originally my test system was my Pentium Pro 200Mhz machine, but due to probably DMA or IRQ issues, I'm not sure what, other devices directly interfered with the signal.
After a quick bout with my 486, I settled on my Pentium 3 450mhz Slot 1 machine.
Now, I am new to BBSes, having never used one in my life, so my experience with terminal programs is rather lacking. I was using Hyperterm as it was easy to get, being already included on Windows. Now right out the gate I do not think this is an amazing option. I had crashes, and I had the program refuse to work or update any settings. Perhaps another terminal would be nicer.
I was using the BTTF BBS at 978-822-2586. First try I think I was using either 4800 or 9600 baud, and it worked! The characters rolled in, and I was asked to login. Here's where the no to unforeseeable issues happened.
Of course the terminal was getting garbage characters in and out every few moments. Now, before you call compression on me, this could be for any number of reasons. My settings could be off, and hyperterminal could just not be all that great. Either way, I am still working on this. I decided to post this as I thought it would interest some people, and if I can get this working reliably, it would make for a very neat and cheap way to hook into a BBS without a landline.
There are potentially other VOIP services that may work better, as the Obi boxes, to my knowledge, are not limited to Google Voice. Any suggestions are welcome, but keep in mind that the question "Why would I even want to do this" is one answered by "because I can".